Los Angeles Kosher Restaurants

Surimi is a Japanese loan word referring to a fish-based food product intended to mimic the texture and color of the meat of lobster, crab and other shellfish. It is typically made from white-fleshed fish (such as pollock or hake) that has been pulverized to a paste and attains a rubbery texture when cooked. The term is also commonly applied to food products made from lean meat prepared in a similar process.

Surimi is a much-enjoyed food product in many Asian cultures and is available in many shapes, forms, and textures. The most common surimi product in the Western market is imitation or artificial crab legs. Such a product often is sold as sea legs and krab in America, and as seafood sticks, crab sticks, fish sticks or seafood extender in Commonwealth nations.

Lean meat from fish or land animals first is separated or minced. The meat then is rinsed numerous times to eliminate undesirable odors. The result is beaten and pulverized to form a gelatinous paste. Depending on the desired texture and flavour of the surimi product, the gelatinous paste is mixed with differing proportions of additives such as starch, egg white, salt, vegetable oil, humectants, sorbitol, sugar, soy protein, seasonings, and chemical enhancers such as transglutaminases and monosodium glutamate (MSG).

If the surimi is to be packed and frozen, food-grade cryoprotectants are added as preservatives while the meat paste is being mixed. Under most circumstances, surimi is processed immediately into a formed and cured product.

You can find authentic Kosher Surimi on many Kosher Restaurants in Los Angeles.

Oily fish, oil-rich fish or pelagic fish are those fish which have oils throughout the fillet and in the belly cavity around the gut, rather than only in the liver like white fish. Examples of such fish include sardine, salmon, trout, anchovy, and mackerel, among others. Oily fish fillets may contain up to 30 percent oil, although this figure varies both within and between species. Oily fish generally swim in the pelagic zones of the oceans and are usually cold water fish (while white fish are warm water fish).

Oily fish are a good source of Vitamins A and D as well as being rich in omega 3 fatty acids (white fish also contain the same nutrients but at a much lower level). For this reason the consumption of oily fish rather than white fish can be more beneficial to humans, particularly concerning cardiovascular diseases, but oily fish are known to carry higher levels of contaminants than white fish. Amongst other benefits, studies suggest that the omega 3 fatty acids in oily fish may help sufferers of depression, reduce the likelihood of heart disease and improve inflammatory conditions such as arthritis.

Consuming oily fish twice per week may also help prevent sudden death due to myocardial infarction by preventing cardiac arrhythmia. The eicosapentaenoic acid found in fish oils appears to dramatically reduce inflammation through conversion within the body to resolvins, with beneficial effects for the cardiovascular system and arthritis.

You can find authentic Kosher Oily Fish on many Kosher Restaurants in Los Angeles.

Pollock (or pollack, pronounced the same and listed first in most UK and US dictionaries) is the common name used for either of the two species of marine fish in the Pollachius genus. Both P. pollachius and P. virens are commonly referred to as pollock. Other names for P. pollachius include the Atlantic pollock, European pollock, lieu jaune, and lythe; while P. virens is sometimes known as Boston blues (distinct from bluefish), coalfish (or coley) or saithe.

Atlantic pollock is largely considered to be a whitefish, although it is a fairly strongly flavored one. Although traditionally a popular source of food in some countries like Norway, in the United Kingdom it has previously been largely consumed as a cheaper and versatile alternative to cod and haddock in the West Country, elsewhere being known mostly for its traditional use as “Pollack for puss / coley for the cat.” However, in recent years pollock has become more popular due to over-fishing of cod and haddock. It can now be found in most supermarkets as fresh fillets or prepared freezer items. For example, when minced, it is the primary component of fish fingers and Popcorn Fish.

Because of its slightly gray color pollock is often prepared, as in Norway, as fried fish balls or if juvenile sized maybe breaded with oatmeal and fried as in Shetland. Year old fish are traditionally split, salted and dried over a peat hearth in Orkney where their texture becomes wooden and somewhat phosphorescent. The fish can also be salted and smoked and achieve a salmon-like orange color (although it is not closely related to the salmon), as is the case in Germany where the fish is commonly sold as Seelachs or sea salmon.

You can find authentic Kosher Pollock on many Kosher Restaurants in Los Angeles.

Whitefish (white fish, demersal fish) is a fisheries term referring to several species of pelagic deep water fish with fins, particularly cod (Gadus morhua), whiting (Merluccius bilinearis), and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), but also hake (Urophycis), pollock (Pollachius), or others.

Unlike oily fish, white fish contain oils only in their liver, rather than in the gut, and can therefore be gutted as soon as they are caught, on board the ship. White fish has dry and white flesh.
White fish are divided into round fish which live near the sea bed (cod, coley) and flatfish such as plaice which live on the sea bed.

White fish is sometimes eaten straight but often used reconstituted for fishsticks, gefilte fish, lutefisk, surimi (imitation crabmeat), etc. For centuries it was preserved by drying as stockfish and clipfish and traded as a world commodity. It is most widely known as the key ingredient in the classic British dish fish and chips. In Jewish cuisine, smoked whole whitefish and whitefish salad are delicacies enjoyed with bagels.

You can find authentic Kosher Whitefish on many Kosher Restaurants in Los Angeles.